Taj Sandur
Candidate for City Councillor
Contact Information
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Phone: 250-572-1905
Personal Information
Resident of: Valleyview
Age: 33
Current Occupation: Realtor/MBA Student
Political Experience:
Although this is my first election, I have had volunteer experience with various parties and elections at the provincial and federal levels. My father was an active supporter of many politicians throughout his life and I often volunteered to help out as well. I have door knocked, fundraised, helped organize campaigns, and even scrutineered in previous elections. I haven't ever had any political aspirations but I feel that I need to be a voice for not only my generation but also the everyday Kamloopsian.
Biography
I am a lifelong local that has come of age in our beautiful city. I have worked in various mills since I was a child as my father owned a small planer mill near Lafarge and after losing it in the 2008 recession, I worked in a plywood mill for many years. I worked my way into management, but I opted to return to TRU as a mature student and completed my business degree with a major in finance. Upon completing my degree, my best job prospects in the financial field were outside of Kamloops so I began a career as a realtor because it would allow me to stay close to my family and keep me in my hometown. I have recently returned to university again to pursue my MBA on a part-time basis.
The reason why I've decided to run is mostly because many younger voters, like myself, are increasingly disillusioned with state of affairs in our city. Not only has crime and homelessness become an epidemic, but housing is becoming increasingly unattainable and we've lost much of our local culture and identity. In the past, our voice hasn't been adequately heard and we deserve a seat at the table as my generation will be the ones who will be paying for the decisions that city hall makes - or doesn't make - for many years to come.
Communally, our first priority should be find ways to mitigate the problems with homelessness and it will be laborious process and it will take a lot of collaboration not only within city hall but across all levels of government. Where I can especially initiate progress and change is with the housing market due to much of my first hand experience in the field. I believe this is critical for my generation which struggles with attaining housing but also for our local economy. Local construction is the #1 private sector for employment and has a wide economic benefit not only to builders but many parties that are aligned with construction from tradespeople, building product suppliers, mills, cement plants, realtors, mortgage brokers, insurance companies, engineers, architects, landscapers, and many more local businesses. The trickledown impact of construction is far more immense than what most people realize and boosting construction in our city is nothing but positive for Kamloops and its citizens.
Outside of these issues, there are lots of things I enjoy. I'm passionate about helping those in need, recently I was working with Ukrainian students to help raise funds for their country and their families. I love spending time with my dog Huxley, a 4 year old Berne-doodle who is my baby boy. I thrive on helping organize, sponsor, or support local events and musicians and artists, most recently I was one of the organizers of the Summer League Block Party series in downtown Kamloops. I also work a lot in one on one situations with young aspiring businesspeople looking for mentorship and direction as they embark on a journey into the business world.
If there is anything specific you would like to know, please feel free to reach out!
Organization Endorsements
Kamloops & District Labour Council
We are the elected representatives of roughly 13,000 unionized workers in the Kamloops area covering Merritt to Valemount and Chase to Lillooet.
Our affiliates work collaboratively to advance the economic and social welfare of workers and with other progressive organizations in the promotion of social justice and human rights as described in the United Nations’ Charter of Human Rights.
We are members of the BC Federation of Labour and the Canadian Labour Congress, the latter of which represents over three-million unionized Canadians.
View WebsiteAnswers to Questions from the Public
Many communities are facing drug addiction challenges, homelessness and have seen increase in crime and property crimes. How would advocate for our disadvantaged community members and what solutions would you propose?
Taj Sandur Answered
We need an independent and thorough audit into our current system and all it's stakeholders. Far too often we are given answers that simply pass the buck to other parties or result in an eternal circle of finger pointing. To remedy this, we need an independent report to acutely identify the failures in our system and answer the most critical questions: WHO is contributing to the problem, HOW can we minimize this, and WHY is it happening?
Once we have this information we can begin to reinforce the lapses in our current system, terminate or minimize the causes of the issue and the parties actively contributing/benefitting from the ongoing issue. This will allow us to utilize our resources for the number of individuals we currently have and limit the rate at which new drug addicted and homeless peoples join our community so we can begin to solve the issue we currently have while trying to stop the issue from snowballing further.
There is no clear and apparent answer to this issue but we have to fight to find a solution that works and I vow to keep fighting until we do.
Do you think education should be treated as an essential service?
Taj Sandur Answered
Yes, education is absolutely an essential service for students.
However, equally essential is the ability to strike for teachers. I have many friends who are teachers and I understand how crucial strikes can be for providing fair and equitable negotiations so I would not want to strip teachers and their unions of that right.
Many municipalities are facing ongoing problems and are dealing with staffing issues as part of the current health care crisis. Describe from a local government perspective how would you plan to recruit workers to our community?
Taj Sandur Answered
We have to work to provide more housing opportunities, it's one of the major reasons people don't choose Kamloops is the difficulty in acquiring a rental, or finding one at a reasonable price.
The next is in providing a higher quality of life and better experiences for the people potentially joining our community. When comparing what Kamloops has to offer for restaurants, bars, music venues, etc., we are eons behind other BC cities like Kelowna or Nanaimo. We have to build a local identity through promoting small business, arts, and culture so that Kamloops is more of a city to experience and not just a place to drive through or visit for tournaments.
Making our city more appealing is key to attracting new workers in all sectors, not just health care. I recently had a friend who is a surgeon decide to forego a job offer at Royal Inland Hospital for a lesser job offer in Nanaimo for substantially less money. These were some of the concerns that swayed them to choose a different city than ours.
The city needs get creative in ways to attract other workers by using non-traditional methods. We are competing with many other great cities in BC for these workers so we have to think out of the box and find solutions other municipalities aren't considering yet.
Define Fiduciary Responsibility and how would you personally apply this to an elected role in Council or the TNRD.
Taj Sandur Answered
A fiduciary duty to me is simple, putting the needs of our city and it's citizens before my needs. This is achieved through being accountable, loyal, transparent, impartial, maintaining public trust, and being ethical.
This is a huge part of why I am running. I am sick and tired of watching many of the elected officials in our city either use their roles as a stepping stone to higher political aspirations, or to provide a hobby in retirement and supplement their pensions. I am running to fix the problems of this city and to ensure it remains to be a city worth living in, not only for myself but many of my peers that aren't happy with the direction we have been heading. If successful, I want to make my impact in 4 years and make the changes our city will need for the next several decades, and end my career in politics immediately after. I have many other aspirations in life, but politics is not one of them.
Millions of jobs were lost during the pandemic. Describe how you will advocate for replacing those lost jobs with good union jobs.
Taj Sandur Answered
This is a tough question to answer. Prior to covid, Canada's employment numbers were at 19.15 Million at their highest in Feb '20 and dropped sharply to 16.15 M in April '20 according to StatsCan. Our Employment numbers have already passed pre-covid levels and are at 19.5M as of August '22. So according to the data, we've already replaced these jobs.
Now the problem lies in creating fair working conditions for many of these new jobs. We are actually facing a labor shortage in most fields at this moment, so many employers are providing new incentives and higher wages in attempts to attract new workers. I don't think union jobs will be able to replace many of the existing jobs but that many workplaces will shift in time to union environments.
I believe we will see an increase of existing workplaces voting in unions to represent their workforces, much like our local Sephora store - the first unionized Sephora in all of North America! We will see opportunities for unions to strengthen the rights of workers in various workplaces as the workers become more educated to and understanding of their rights and freedoms. As this occurs, these workers will seek out a strong voice to represent their shared concerns, which will provide plenty of opportunities for unions to help employees.
How will you promote ethical purchases, including local unionized goods and services, where available?
Taj Sandur Answered
Our council should try and push the direction of our city forward in this regard, definitely to support the local unions, businesses, and suppliers of goods/services when possible. When bidding for contracts, I would like to see local firms getting a type of weighted bonus on their applications as a way to support our local economy. I have mentioned before the trickle down economic benefit of supporting local businesses, so the city needs to actually implement policies to reflect these views instead of simply paying lip service.
What steps would you take to ensure your local government hiring practices reflect the community’s population diversity? Are you aware of any existing Employment Equity policies in your community or other communities?
Taj Sandur Answered
The City just hired an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Coordinator, Tymmarah Mackie. I would want to see how this role evolves and what it covers so I would watch to see if there are ways to improve or expand on this as it is in its infancy as of right now.
For those unfamiliar with the role, it is "In partnership with Thompson Rivers University, Indigenous groups, and community organizations, including Kamloops Immigrant Services and Kamloops Pride, Mackie will also aid in the development of an EDI training program for City leaders, managers, and staff. Other areas of focus will include:
- introducing ongoing processes, practices, and materials that expand EDI awareness, understanding, and capacity throughout the organization
- integrating equity, diversity, and inclusion as guiding principals for recruitment
- making employment accessible with and for employees that reflect the diversity of our community and region
- continuing to ensure our engagement platforms remain as inclusive and accessible as possible"
I believe the city has begun to take the right steps forward but we will have to monitor and evaluate our progress before dedicating ourselves to further change.
Describe how you will address housing needs and housing that people can afford in your community?
Taj Sandur Answered
This is my personal priority #1 as I see the problems much more often than other candidates. Not only is my work revolving around the housing sector but I am one of many young people feeling the burdening pressures of simply finding and paying for the basic need of housing, not only to buy but even more so to rent.
The first and immediate solution is to provide more housing. A greater supply of homes will drive down rental prices and alleviate the pressures for everyone renting. There are several steps that we need to take in order to address this:
- Revise the OCP (official community plan) aka KAMPLAN to reflect the needs of today's city, not 2018 pre-pandemic Kamloops that hadn't experienced a boom of housing prices and population.
- Ensure the City of Kamloops Development Services and Engineering Dept has adequate human capital. Right now the department is understaffed severely.
- Expedite permitting times and processes to ensure that new housing starts are able to begin more efficiently.
- Provide pre-zoning for smaller multi-family developments (4-plex, 6-plex or similar) and eventually for smaller apartment buildings (10-20 unit apartments to start but increasing in size) in areas that are prime for redevelopment corridors. This links back to revising the OCP.
- Working with developers in an ever changing industry to ensure that we are ready to adapt as needed.
I have other ideas but these would be the most feasible and immediate changes we could implement for providing relief to the housing crisis.
What can local governments do to attract and create green jobs and businesses in their community?
Taj Sandur Answered
We would have to work hand in hand with the major stakeholders in our city to provide more green initiatives. Working with Venture Kamloops would be an ideal start to expand on the programs that they have initiated.
There is a much bigger issue in Kamloops in just attracting any kind of new jobseekers and businesses here. We have to first essentially "open Kamloops for business" and let prospective investors and businesses know that our city is willing to work with new businesses. It has been very difficult for individuals that were attempting to enter our market in the past and we have often been overlooked - many times for Kelowna - for new investments and businesses. Cutting through the red tape of opening new ventures and promoting growth will be a huge priority for our city moving forward, as will fighting nepotism and providing equal opportunities for everyone, whether they're newcomers or have been established in city.
What steps would you take to ensure a Pay Equity policy is in place and that the policy is applied to all staff employed by the local government?
Taj Sandur Answered
The Pay Equity Act was enacted in 2018 but there is a long way to go until we are able to provide real and sustainable equity in Canadian workplaces. For all staff at the municipal level in Kamloops it will be tough to truly oversee this so I would propose in creating a Pay Equity Director under the newly created EDI (equity, diversity, and inclusion) manager. This would be the only way to ensure that Kamloops is a leader in promoting real change and implementing practices that will strengthen our city from within city hall.
Please describe the principles of public education and how education should be funded.
Taj Sandur Answered
I believe that accessible education is every Canadian's right. Current and relevant methods of delivering information to students should be utilized and every student should be able to partake free of discrimination.
Funding should be provided through Federal and Provincial levels but we may need to lobby for more. Not only are many of our schools overloaded with students, but there are often shortages in support staff.
We would greatly benefit by having student loans forgiven or for having subsidies for local students pursuing secondary education - especially healthcare workers, tradespeople, teachers, social workers, or other sectors that are suffering from a lack of employees. This would be a Federal initiative but we can begin lobbying at a municipal level.
How would you address the challenges of the current funding structure for students with special needs?
Taj Sandur Answered
The funding structure falls under Section 106.3 (5) of the School Act so it is more so on the provincial level, however I would work with SD73 to see where we are lacking in this regard. I think support staff and services are critical to ensuring that students with special needs are given an equal opportunity to succeed. It seems that we are facing labor shortages in all fields, so finding adequate and skilled staff to fill these roles could be problematic.
At the very basic level, we can lobby to demonstrate that the previously projected costs are no longer representing the actual costs incurred of funding these programs. To be honest, I do not have a plan specifically for funding programs for special needs students as of yet but if it is an issue that is impacting our kids then we, as a community, need to seek out a solution.
Do you support the Living Wage for Families Campaign? Please explain why or why not.
Taj Sandur Answered
100%! Although the campaign states that Kamloopsians only need $16.71/hour to survive here, I think the actual hourly wage to make ends meet in this city is higher. With living costs skyrocketing throughout the past few years, it is important that we ensure that families that are on the brink of poverty are kept out of that cycle. It is a slippery slope, so we as a community need to make sure that the most vulnerable contributors to our society are cared for.
As a finance major, I have mixed feelings about UBI and I would need to see how exactly the program would be implemented in Canada. My hesitancy lies in the fact that when you increase the supply of money (similar to low interest rates and incentives during the pandemic) that inflation rises rapidly. So although people at the lowest income levels will receive additional income - the potential increase in the cost of living due to a sharp uptick in inflation will possibly offset the benefit of the UBI program. Again, this would depend on how the program gets implemented and I hope that federal economists would forecast this event occurring.
What are the top three critical issues facing your community?
Taj Sandur Answered
The most obvious is crime stemming from homelessness and drug abuse.
The second is housing; the lack of new homes and affordability in general.
Third is creating a higher quality of life overall: We have grown rapidly and now we have big city problems, without any of the big city benefits. This is felt especially by the growing number of people that are constantly weighing the option of leaving Kamloops.
Are you or have you ever been active in any community organizations, actions, or campaigns?
Describe your volunteer work, positions, and any tangible change to the community from your involvement. Are you still involved with this work?
Taj Sandur Answered
I don't have a running tally of all of the things I have volunteered for as I never felt the need advertise where and how I was helping out, I was just happy to be helping people. I never anticipated a shift into politics so I haven't kept serious track of my community involvement.
I have volunteered in a few roles that I can recall recently. Most recently I have sponsored, helped organize and volunteered at the Summer League Block Party series - two local events from which all profits were donated to BC SPCA.
I worked with Ukrainian Canadians and helped organize efforts to fundraise and organize shipments of tactical gear from Canada and across the world into Ukraine. We had last been able to set up an operation within Ukraine to build and supply body armour and other supplies to Ukrainian soldiers fighting the war in their home country. Kamloops Stands With Ukraine was the local effort but we worked with a larger organization called Second Front Ukraine. This was important to me because I knew many Ukrainians that I met through my time at TRU that had adopted Kamloops as home, and I wanted them to know that our community cares.
Through Covid, my volunteering and community activism was limited. Not only did the pandemic have an impact on how we were all interacting but I was also battling health issues at that time.
During the wildfires, I worked at and donated to the Kamloops Food Bank. I hopped in whenever I had time to help unload shipments and help organize the donations.
I'm working to establish a resource group of young professionals that can provide guidance for aspiring business owners. I'm hopeful that we can help provide the next generation with the right advice to cultivate new ideas in our city.
There have been other events and organizations that I've helped out at. Often times when anyone asks for my assistance, I show up but I don't always remember all of the different events and roles I'm in. In my culture, it is an integral part of our Sikh religion called "Seva" which translates selfless service to others and it was taught to me thoroughly by my mother. I was always told not to recount when I had helped others because it would be done so in vanity, and then it would not truly be a selfless act.
If you are a Union member, does your union (provide union/local name) offer endorsement to members running for public office? If so, have you applied for/received endorsement from your union?
Taj Sandur Answered
I have not worked in a unionized workplace throughout my employment history, but I do understand their value. When I left my last position in a plywood mill, they were in the midst of becoming unionized.
Currently, I am self-employed as a licensed realtor and a part time Master's student.